Sharing My Recipes, My Life, And The Food Tale Of Two Cities

EPCOT Food And Wine Festival, 2014

It has been an awesome week. First, my daughter Melissa came home and spending the whole day with family and friends at the EPCOT Food and Wine Festival. Let me start at the beginning,

The first stop on our food adventure around the world was Mexico. I knew I had to have that frozen Pomegranate and lime Margarita along with their marinated rib eye tacos, Yum! Oh, and of course, this tasty treat wouldn’t be complete without the sounds of the Mariachi band playing in the background. Next up South Korea.

Still full from Mexico, and sipping my margarita, I wanted to make sure I could show you a few of the small bites from the other countries. I had to pace myself in order to try the samples that the other countries were offering.

Singapore, amazing!

Africa, this is the one. Marinated beef tenderloin pieces with vegetables and mushrooms over grits. Sounds simple right, but the flavors in these dishes are out of this world. The ingredients and spices come together like it was a marriage made in heaven.

We were all thirsty and stumbled upon a tea stand. I tried the mango ginger tea, WOW!

We learned that this year’s event they were going to have food specifically from Florida. They offered a Zellwood Sweet Corn And Bacon Hash.

Now comes my favorite thing to do, at the festival, it’s time for the food demos. Melissa and I split off from the rest of our party for some partying of our own. We head over to the Festival Center. This is the place where all the chefs do their food demos, book signings and all other kinds of cool stuff.

So let me tell you what’s happening here. Starting at the top on the left is the entrance to the center, Then their vast wine display. Then you can see the set for the kitchen demos. There are also many unique displays. My dear friend Pamela Smith, with Spice Blends. has her display here. Pamela will be doing the moderating for the food demos all day. Here’s a picture of Pamela with a world-renowned pastry chef, discussing and teaching some pastry techniques.

The picture on the right is a new chef on the scene in the U.S. Maria Isabel, but very well known in her home country of Puerto Rico.

The highlight of my day was watching Chef Carla Hall do her thing at one of the demos. It’s amazing the connection she makes with her audience. She was doing a book signing after the demo. Melissa, bought me her new cookbook, Carla’s Comfort Foods. Needless to say, I hurried over to the standby line because the main line was sold out in minutes. I was lucky enough to be the first one in standby, so I had my finger crossed.

I felt like I was meeting royalty. She was everything I knew she’d be, real, sweet and down to earth. She never left until she talked to everyone, even those of us in the standby line.

Amazing, just awesome, and I even got a bit emotional. My daughter gave me a day I’ll never forget. Thank you so much, Melissa, I love you.

After all of this, we were hungry again. We had to meet up Christine, Steve’s daughter for dinner.

So the girls put their hats on and took this picture for posterity. How cute are they? Now it’s time to do some walking to reach our destination.

Beautiful scenery, as we made over to Japan. It’s Melissa’s favorite restaurant.

I would have loved to have shown some pictures of the beautiful and colorful dishes we had but, we were so hungry and tired that I completely forgot.

Listen if you are ever in Orlando during the month of October, make this festival one of your stops while visiting. If you live here and have never been, you definitely want to put this on your list of things to do.

Let’s Dish With Linda Lou

Hello, thank you so much for stopping by my little corner of the world.
I'm Linda Lou, a single parent of a beautiful daughter named, Melissa. Melissa is currently continuing her education while living in San Francisco, CA. I reside in Orlando, Fl., in a great neighborhood known as College Park.
I learned how to cook at a very early age both by my mother who was from England and my grandmother who was of Sicilian descent. Both my mom and my grandmother had a major impact on how I approached cooking. Two very different types of cuisine yet both shine through in my recipes.
Living in such a warm climate, I'm lucky enough to be able to grow all my own herbs. I believe using fresh herbs in any recipe really elevates the flavor of the dish.
As often as I can, I take advantage of our farmers' markets, buying local and seasonal ingredients is key to making a great dish.
I've lived in Orlando for many years and watched the culinary industry grow beyond belief. We have great chefs and terrific cuisine all over the state. I'm going to give a peek into the culinary world of two great cities, Orlando and San Francisco.
Let's Dish With Linda Lou is where I share my recipes, my life, and the food tale of two cities.